Standard Member

i recently downloaded Skyrim on steam and immediately when i started playing there was very bad lag which was very difficult to play. My PC meet all the requirements and the default setting was set to high, i did a quick search on Google to see if there was a quick fix and i found out about the mouse acceleration setting to 0 which is did. this did not help much. so im currently running on the low quality setting and its better but still some lag. so im thinking of maybe upgrading the cpu and/or graphics card, would this help?

Well-known Member

well that will be for smarter people than i to advise you, i do know that if your looking at an amd chip youll need a different motherboard too to accomodate it as intel and amd dont use the same interfaces

Well-known Member

also while stripping the system take a look at the Psu as them Dell systems usually use Custom Psu's built just for that system, just post the info here.

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I have noticed this too, though all the T3400's I have stripped have come with a much better PSU with all the connectors, the T3500's however came with the absolute bare minimum to get the system up and running. It's at least easy to change the PSU though now that Dell have finally stopped mucking with the board power connectors.

I have noticed this too, though all the T3400's I have stripped have come with a much better PSU with all the connectors, the T3500's however came with the absolute bare minimum to get the system up and running. It's at least easy to change the PSU though now that Dell have finally stopped mucking with the board power connectors.

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thats the problem with Dell ,i fixed a friends last year and the only thing i could upgrade in the system if needed was the mem
i did here a while back that they made the Cd/Dvd roms smaller so you could not get an after market on to fit there case once the drive failed, not sure if it is true or ever happened though.

Well-known Member

Sorry, cant disagree with this more. For people who dont know how to do things computery, Dell PC's are an excellent choice. Obviously their cheaper models might be prone to problems, in exactly the same way that any other companies cheaper models are prone to problems. And unless you happen to speak in an incredibly heavy regional accent of some kind, Dell customer service is not that difficult to get on with. The tech guys run through the right kinds of checks most times and will be very helpful providing you dont shout at them because they are in india. Most UK based tech call centres are simply full of asian employees anyhow! (and I work for a company that has one, so am speaking from experience).

Dells midrange, laptop and higher end PC's are always very well made, granted exceptions occur, however it is often traced to a bad batch of parts from a third party, rather than Dells build quality.

Yes, you can get gaming rigs cheaper elsewhere, but thats because Dell dont specialise in them, they specialise in home PC's covering a variety of abilities, and work PC's for offices mainly. And yes, you can build your own a lot cheaper quite often, but as I mentioned, for people who dont know how to or are not compentent enough, its hard to beat a Dell.

I've had 2 laptops from them, one over 3 years old, still going strong (in use by mum on a daily basis), the one im on now which is going very nicely after a year and still playing new games nicely. 2 netbooks, one a Mini9 from Vodafone package, was in perfect working order until I sold it after 2.5 years to a mate...amazingly it died quite quickly, but given he gave it to his 5 year old son to use, I suspect it wasnt the laptops fault. A Dell Duo which I bought myself, fantastic device, yes, battery life isnt amazing, but then its pretty nippy and capable of doing a fair bit more than my Mini9 could, and as I leave it in the dock at work it doesnt matter. Well built, and a year in has had no issues.

Desktop, 4. First one got struck my lightening and the hard drive was still working properly after so I could retrieve data (thankfully insurance company was very very helpful and sent me back the HDD), second one only died because I overloaded the PSU rather massively, third and fourth ones, Dell Dimension 8300 and 8400 (both 3ghz P4, but 8400 was PCI-E) are still working strong after god knows how many years abuse, mostly to do video encoding and crunching stuff.

So thats 8 Dell PC's over around 14 years, only three no longer in operation, one from a lightening strike! The other from me adding more RAM, another disk drive, another two hard drives, a much more powerful graphics card, a soundcard and a TV Tuner without realising what might happen. Otherwise, all good. The third a mystery, but I suspect child abuse as my friend didnt let me see it to see if it could be fixed...lol

If you've had a bad experience with a company personally, then fair enough, I can appreciate why you might be reluctant to use or recommend them, but you have to take it in context. With a company of Dells size, of course there will be a large amount of complaints online to read.....they sell fantastically huge numbers of PC's compared to the smaller, gamer rig specialising companies.

If you are just jumping on a 'hate Dell' bandwagon because of their success....then please, save it for clan forums where people like to bitch and moan with no good reason and slate everything because its cool and not consider the implications.

Well-known Member

ps. In case someone decides to point out where I say they dont specialise, but then whats Alienware. Well, thats a loss leader operation for Dell. It tends not to make them any money due to the after sales care involved and the higher cost to them when things do go wrong. They have the product to make sure their name is still in the minds of people who only really use a PC for gaming, so that when they require a PC not for gaming, they might still go for a Dell. It's kind of like an Asda £10 DVD player launch. They lose money on it (or gain virtually nothing), so why do they do it? Simple, firstly, you remember the Asda more, secondly, when you go in to buy it, you buy a couple of DVD's perhaps because the players so cheap. Oh, maybe I'll get a ready meal to eat while I watch.....oohhh need some dessert for after....mebbe just a 4 pack of beer to wash it all down....ohh I need some bin bags while im here, oohhh whats that offer on......etc....

pps. I do build my own gaming rigs now for the purpose of learning more about how they operate, and also to overclock the pants off them. Thankfully, I appear to have Dells knack for choosing components and putting them together, as neither of my PC's have had a problem, one is currently being used by a mate while he awaits getting a new rig himself, the other as per my sig is a lovely beast, happily oc's to 4.1 on the conventional intel air cooler using the genie button, havnt had the chance yet to pop a little something stronger on it to see what else I can get, but then it runs very nicely and plays most games without any issues, so dont see the point in stressing it until I can afford to replace parts in the event of a problem.

Well-known Member

I remember on my first home build, I got an E6300, was hoping to overclock the poo out of it, but it turned out to have a slightly off kilter plate, so couldnt seat the coolers well enough to get more than a 15% difference. So I replaced it with an E6700 eventually, as at the time, very little software I used would benefit from the Q6600, so I felt the higher clockspeed would be useful. Managed to get around 12% extra out of the E6700, but that that limitation was due to the cooler more than anything. I remember I kept my eyes on faster Quads that my mobo could supposedly support, but they never came down in price enough to be worth the outlay....

until the i5's came out, then the price of older quads suddenly looked very interesting....but then I saw the night and day difference to the i5 so plumped for a new rig instead...haha..

Well-known Member

I've never bought a pre-built rig from a faceless corporation [except from my first ever computer, a Packard Bell - I was 10ish]. When you do that, it also means you have no real attachment to the rig either.

I suppose it would be akin to buying a pre-refurbished classic car as opposed to buying the shell, then the parts and building it yourself. You get a real sense of accomplishment from it.

The first proper pre-built PC I bought was from a local store, and because I had a very keen interest in hardware (and I was young) the guy let me watch him build it... And from that day forward, I've always done DIY jobs.

Not the most 'best-practice' of jobs sometimes, but I was proud none-the-less!

Moderator

Sorry, cant disagree with this more. For people who dont know how to do things computery, Dell PC's are an excellent choice..

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I look after 400+ Dell machines (745, 755, 760 and some newer W7 PCs, 790?s) and they have been excellent for their use. Dell Service Centres and techs have 9/10 been superb, always bring loads of kit to swap stuff out, and come out when they say they will.

On the flipside we have 60ish Viglen machines. In my experience of the last 18months, 9/10 they dont come out when they say they are and repeatidly come back to try and resolve things.

Dell of 8 years ago are not Dell of now and make good solid laptops and desktop PCs - no they are not he best components, but thats why you build yourself, so you can cherry pick.

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I dont mind a bit of lighthearted ribbing against a company like Dell, for example the Dell Boy pic above, got a laugh out of that, its just when people want to try and demolish a very good company by stating quite finally 'dont buy them' without giving any genuine justification.

One thing I've always been tickled by is that the 8300 and 8400 case was parodied by Turtle in the Counter:Strike Source cs_office map, but with the word Beefy replacing Dell on the big grey side button...lol. They were indeed beefy cases, weighed a flipping ton too....on the plus side, very solid, good heat dissipation and low noise floor.